Autumn reviews are open — send your current schedule before 14 November to hold a slot.
Request a review
Independent brokerage
Basalt Current places cover with several insurers rather than one. We start by reading your existing schedule — because most of the money and most of the risk sits in wording nobody re-checks at renewal.
Household · Motor & fleet · Trade liability · Landlord · Income & life · Travel
Cover is placed across a panel of insurers, so the recommendation can change when an insurer's wording or appetite changes.
Your current schedule, endorsements and claims history come first. A cheaper premium on narrower wording is not a saving.
Each policy we place goes into a renewal diary, and you hear from us before the invitation arrives — not after it auto-renews.
Cover we arrange
Pick the lane closest to your situation. Each one lists the question the policy is really answering, and the detail we check before recommending anything.
Would a full rebuild actually be paid for, and would the things you'd replace first be inside the definition of contents? Includes home-office equipment and high-value single items.
We checkRebuild basis versus market value, single-item limits, escape-of-water and subsidence terms, unoccupancy clauses.
Private cars, vans carrying tools, and fleets small enough that one driver's record moves the whole premium. Business use and named-driver structures are worth getting right once.
We checkUse class against how the vehicle is actually driven, tool cover overnight, courtesy-vehicle terms, driver declarations.
For trades and small sites: public and products liability, employers' liability where you have staff or labour-only help, and cover for the work itself while it is unfinished.
We checkDeclared trade description, heat-work and height conditions, subcontractor wording, contract requirements you must meet.
One flat or a small portfolio. The gap most owners meet is loss of rent and the period a property may stand empty between tenancies or during works.
We checkLoss-of-rent period, tenant type restrictions, void-period limits, malicious-damage and accidental-damage terms.
What arrives, and when, if you cannot work for months rather than days. We look at the waiting period and the definition of incapacity before we look at the monthly cost.
We checkDeferred period against savings, own-occupation wording, guaranteed versus reviewable premiums, existing employer benefits.
Annual multi-trip, longer stays, and the seasonal add-ons people forget: equipment hire, cancellation for work reasons, and declared medical conditions.
We checkTrip-length caps, declared conditions, activity lists, cancellation triggers and per-item baggage limits.
How a review works
A review is a reading exercise before it is a buying exercise. You can stop after step two and simply keep what you have.
Current schedules, any endorsements, and a note of claims in the last five years. Scans or photographs are fine.
We mark what is covered, what is excluded, where the excesses bite, and where the sums insured look out of date.
Where a change is worth making, we approach the insurers whose wording fits and show you the differences side by side.
We place the cover you choose, confirm the documents, and diarise the renewal so next year starts early.
Before you renew
Premium is the easiest number to compare and the least useful on its own. These four decide what actually happens when you claim.
| Item | What it actually means | Ask the insurer |
|---|---|---|
| Excess | The amount you pay on every claim, sometimes stacked — a policy excess plus a separate one for water damage or young drivers. | "List every excess that could apply to one water-damage claim." |
| Sum insured basis | Whether you are paid the cost of rebuilding or replacing new, or a reduced figure for wear and age. | "Is this new-for-old, and is the rebuild figure indexed each year?" |
| Exclusions & conditions | The wording that quietly requires something of you — locks in use, an alarm set, a property not left empty beyond a set number of days. | "Which conditions must I keep to for this claim to be paid?" |
| Claims handling | Who answers when something happens, whether repairs use an approved network, and how interim payments work. | "Who do I call first, and who appoints the contractor?" |
The person you deal with
Basalt Current is a small independent brokerage, and Rowan Vance handles the reviews personally. You are not passed to a different desk once the policy is placed.
The method is deliberately unglamorous: read the schedule, write down the gaps in plain language, and only then talk about insurers. Most reviews end with two or three specific changes rather than a wholesale switch, and some end with a recommendation to keep exactly what you have.
Where a risk sits outside what this brokerage is set up to place — large commercial property, marine, specialist fleets — we say so at the first conversation rather than three emails in.
Questions clients ask first
No. Reading your existing schedule and writing up the gaps is free, and there is no obligation to change anything afterwards. If you decide to keep your current policy, you keep the notes too.
By commission from the insurer when a policy is placed through us, which is included in the premium rather than charged on top. Where a case needs work that commission would not cover, we agree a fee with you in writing before starting — never afterwards.
Your current policy schedule and any endorsement documents, plus a short note of claims in the last five years. For trade cover, add your trade description and whether you use subcontractors or labour-only help.
Generally no — earned no-claims years are portable, though each insurer sets its own limit on how many years it will recognise and may ask for proof from your current provider. We confirm this in writing before any change is made, because it is easier to check than to unwind.
Because an under-stated sum insured can reduce every payment you receive, not just large ones. Many policies apply the shortfall proportionally: if the figure is a third short, a claim can settle a third short. A lower premium bought that way is a deferred cost, not a saving.
Often, yes. If the wording suits you, the sensible outcome may be adjusting a sum insured or removing a duplicated add-on and leaving the insurer alone. We will tell you when that is the case.
For urgent damage or an incident, contact the insurer's claims line first so the loss is recorded and any emergency work is authorised. Then tell us, and we will help assemble the evidence, check the wording being applied and chase progress on your behalf.
Yes. Part-time and home-based work is a common gap, because a household policy usually stops at business use and stock kept at home. It is normally straightforward to cover once the trade is described accurately.
Request a review
Tell us which cover to look at and when it renews. We will reply with what to send and a realistic date for the gap notes.